Oakland Athletics fans bristle over report that team being outdrawn by most Triple-A squads: "It’s not about the fans" "Skinflint recluse of an owner"
Matters are quickly going from bad to worse for the Oakland Athletics. With the team once again trading off any player approaching stardom, Oakland opened the 2023 season with the lowest payroll in MLB by a wide margin at just a hair over $43 million – nearly $120 million lower than the league average.
The Athletics opened the 2023 season with a six-game home stand that showed just how much in revolt that their fanbase is. On opening day, a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels, drew just 14,638 to the decrepit RingCentral Coliseum, and attendance has plummeted from there.
On Tuesday night, the announced attendance for a 4-3 win over the visiting Cleveland Guardians was just 3,407. That attendance figure was eclipsed by 11 of the 13 Triple-A ballclubs to play on the day, with four of those clubs more than doubling the Athletics' paid attendance figure.
Of the 13 AAA games yesterday, 11 drew more fans than the Oakland A's announced attendance of 3,407. Four more than doubled the A's attendance.
Oakland fans are used to the penny-pinching ways of former owners Steve Schott and Lewis Wolff, but even with that, the Athletics were able to field competitive teams more often than not. However, when the team was sold to current owner John Fischer in 2016, it did not take long for the once-proud franchise to descend into moppishness.
@jjcoop36 That's what happens when a billionaire owner uses his couch change to fund his MLB payroll.
@jjcoop36 Write about ownership group who don't care about putting a quality product on the field. They prefer to pocket all the $$ while shipping out good players. A's are 30th on payroll.
@jjcoop36 You know exactly why attendance for the A's is so bad. Stop pretending like you don't know, it makes you look like a hack. The media loves to beat up on the A's fans when its the skinflint recluse of an owner that deserves the attention.
Not helping matters is that the team still plays in a decaying stadium. RingCentral Coliseum was built in 1966 as a home for both the Oakland Athletics and Oakland Raiders. The Raiders moved to Los Angeles in 1982, but returned to Oakland in 1994 after a massive outfield addition referred to as "Mount Davis" in scornful reference to former Raiders owner Al Davis.
In 2020, the Raiders moved to Las Vegas, leaving the crumbling Coliseum – including the haphazard stadium addition – behind for the Athletics.
MLB and the team has been looking to move to a new stadium in the Oakland area for the better part of this century, all to no avail.
@jjcoop36 When attendance is that low it’s not about the fans.
@jjcoop36 Congrats on stating the obvious, now could you have a writer do a comprehensive story on the A’s ownership and why attendance is so bad? Or are you just gonna throw meaningless tweets out? Pretty sure I know the answer though
@jjcoop36 Now where is the added context about how the A's are ran by a billionaire who acts like a tightwad even though he's regularly among the 10 richest owners in MLB since, after all, ALL THE DETAILS matter.....
The grudge match between Fischer and the Athletics fanbase continues to drag on, as both the on-field talent and the off-field attendance have reached new lows. Oakland has never been one of the highest-attended major league markets, with turnstiles usually counting off season attendance totals around 1.5 million.
However, an 81-game average of 3,400 fans comes to a grand total of 275,400 for the season – a figure the Athletics last saw in the mid-1930s, when the team was based in Philadelphia.
@jjcoop36 3400 people my goodness
@jjcoop36 That’s embarrassing for the sport.
@jjcoop36 And here I thought the Reds attendance was horrible.
In February, the Associated Press reported MLB commissioner Rob Manfred saying that Fischer is now focused on moving the Oakland Athletics to Las Vegas. The team's lease in Oakland expires after the 2024 season.
@jjcoop36 https://t.co/b6MjkvKg7L
Oakland Athletics managing to win a few games so far
The Oakland Athletics may feature a roster full of low-paid "nobodys," but the team has managed to stay competitive in the majority of its first six home games. However, very few people have managed to notice.